Tag: #hope

While spring was arriving, we were fortunate enough to be in Niagara Falls. Although we had been there many times before, seeing the daffodils was very special and on top of that, the weather was incredible.

With the short lived time to experience daffodils, especially in such a wonderful place, this was an extra treat in addition to an already fantastic wonder of the world.

Dazzling daffodils on display with the bridge from Niagara to Buffalo in the distance with the American Falls to the right.

Just a short video from a balcony showing the awe and magnificence of these wonderful falls.

The opening pieces of music were from two very gifted musicians. The Persian Duo did an excellent job of setting the scene at Beit Zatoun House for this evening of Middle East Flavour and Sound. Continue reading “Persian Duo”→

In a peace starved world where there is so much pain, suffering, violence, hurt and loss of life, to attend a lecture about love, in this case, ‘Divine Love’ according to the famous poet Rumi, was something very interesting to be looking forward to. Continue reading “‘Radical Love’”→

I first heard about Cirque-du-Soleil (Circus of the Sun) back in 2001 when I first met my wife. It came up in a discussion once and she showed me some videos of them performing, I was totally amazed at what they did and I remember making an intention that one day I would love to see them with my wife performing live, and not just watch them on a screen in front of me. I didn’t think that one day I would actually be going to see them perform live and be writing a blog about it!

We arrived at Union Station, the busiest transportation facility in Canada. Over 250,000 passengers traverse through here every day which is really quite something. It opened in 1927 and was designated a National Historic Site in Canada in 1975. It was also designated a Heritage Railway Station in 1989.

I know this is a common sentence that we hear, but I truly cannot believe another year has passed us by, time truly does not wait for anyone and it just seems that our minutes, hours, days, weeks and months are just flying by, do you feel the same way?

I would like to begin with expressing my heartfelt gratitude to my niece who organised this event, she did a fantastic job and we are all incredibly proud of her, she gave a press interview on Dundas Square and then later in the evening, gave a live interview for a TV channel. Her energy, activism, enthusiasm, dedication and hope for a better world is much to be admired, thank you my lovely Fatimah.

Below are photos of a Candlelight Vigil for Global Peace which she organised in Dundas Square, Downtown Toronto. This was in light of the horrific events in the past week, in Beirut, Paris and Baghdad, but extending to all violence against all people. I would like to express my condolences to the families of all those innocent lives that were taken away so violently and mercilessly. Here I would like to express a few words…

Human life is sacred, let’s get this clear from the very outset. It is so sacred, that it is not and can never be confined and restricted to colour, religion, ethnicity, gender, status, power, locality, or any other label people want to identify it with. All life is precious.

Most of us share the same goals in life, it doesn’t matter who you are and where you are from. For instance, I would like to believe that most people on this planet want to be happy, want to love and be loved, be healthy, live without fear, have the freedom to move around, marry who you wish, live where you want, choose to believe or not to believe, etc. No person has the right to take any of these God given rights away from anyone as we are all beautifully distinctive and individual, we are all the same yet different, no one can compel another to love in a certain way, feel a certain emotion, do things against their intrinsic nature, force them to believe, not allow for someone to judge according to their own formidable intuition, face any form of abuse or be discriminated in any way…no one has the right to do these things to another human being, end of!

Tragedy on this earth takes place on a daily basis, we are constantly reminded that there are some really despicable and twisted people on this earth, so sick and vile, so barbaric in their thoughts and actions, that they have left the folds of humanity, and most people do not, cannot and will not adhere to any of these pathetic and lowly belief systems, no matter what they base their arguments on, these earth shattering atrocities can never be justified, it is simply against our human nature.

Human life is so sacred that the pain and suffering in the world that we see, that we hear, that our senses testify to, we cannot ignore, we cannot let it pass, we cannot rationalise to say that it is not our problem. The plain truth here is very simple, yet devastatingly heart breaking, heart wrenching, it sends shivers down the back and makes you want to scream!

This is a message to all these animals who kill, maim, take so much innocent life, snatch away our sons and daughters, seperate the loving lives of wife and husband, kill our fathers, rape our mothers and sisters, destroy generations, take away hope, attempt to eliminate peace, destroy our heritage, pollute our gift of a planet with their existence, aim to cause corruption, discord and disunity…you will never ever succeed, we don’t care how much money you have, how sophisticated your weaponary is, it does not matter who you are backed by and who your allies are, it doesn’t matter what you base your belief system on, who you think your God is, what you interpret truth to be, it is an absolute joke that you talk about salvation and that you are doing God’s work…what a massive insult to the Merciful Lord, an absolute disgrace you are…you cannot and will not succeed against the unity of love, compassion, understanding, respect, hope, dignity and the reality of the ultimate truth that is shared amongst all decent, upright and compassionate beings. Beings of faith and none who clearly understand the verse from the Qur’an: “Whoever kills an innocent person, it is as if they have killed the whole of humanity…” (5:32).

You sick people (who I will not even mention here as you are not worthy of it) do not, actually, do not even have the capacity to comprehend the fact that human love is indestructible, life is a manifestation of God’s divine beauty and the soul is eternal. Your actions are so horrific that you are totally ignorant of the fact that you are constantly creating your own damnation, your own hell fire is being contually fuelled by your highly mistaken ideologies where your ignorance is being compounded with every passing moment, at every instance, your accountability will certainly take place and it will be perfectly just as God is Just. The fact that so many people attended this vigil tonight and at the other thousands of other locations around the world, the fact that there were people from all walks of life, beliefs, colours and religions…all there for the same goal of a hope for a better world, a peaceful society, a loving and respectful relationship with each other, shows that you have already lost…you lost your souls the moment you subscribed to this horrendous existence and what you claim as a way of life!

I believe that in every evil there is beauty, there is an opportunity to do good, to be taken out of our comfort zone, to change a situation, to make a difference, to be challenged, to bring personal awareness and awaken those around us who may, for a number of reasons, be in slumber and are distracted and need to be awoken to the truth. This is not about me being Muslim and opposing those who claim to be Muslim, this has absolutely, categorically nothing to do with Islam. This is about me being human and they not being human in any way. This is about my sister or brother in faith being the equal of my sister or brother of no faith. This is about these baseless animals being the enemy of all people of conscience and all free thinking people. This is about standing up against oppression, injustice and tyranny in all forms, there is no place for hate. This is about life being sacred, love being precious, humanity being divine! Peace!